


Eat Your Heart Out

by jetreadsstuff



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Frequent updates, Gay Zuko (Avatar), Getting Together, M/M, Modern AU, bi sokka, everyone is gay (except for the customers. the customers are all straight. because i hate them), jane austen level slow burn, obligational i'm just kidding some customers are ok and those ones can be gay, real world AU, restaurant AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-07-17 06:29:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16089977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jetreadsstuff/pseuds/jetreadsstuff
Summary: Sokka wants to be a chef and is very passionate about working in a restaurant. Zuko is just a guy who needed a job. Sokka has always had to help out the family. Zuko hasn't had to work a day in his life. Sokka is sarcastic and has a strange sense of humor. Zuko keeps to himself and grumbles a lot. Sokka gets along with most people. Zuko just moves along around people. They're as different as night and day. or, at least it seems like it. Working in such close quarters though, they'll have to find some way to get along.





	1. Giant Mallet covered in raw meat getting clunked into your head (ASMR)

The job had seemed simple enough. Just a plain old dishwasher. It seemed like it could be gross, but Zuko needed the job and Iroh had offered him an interview. He wasn’t so talkative, but they hired him on principle of being related to to one of the managers,  on the guise that Zuko would be half the star employee of his uncle. Mistake number one on part of the company.

“Zuko, are you ready yet?” Iroh called down the hall. Zuko grumbled something too quiet to hear in response to his uncle’s question. Nevertheless, he stumbled through the apartment in his new uniform for the sit down all you can eat buffet restaurant, Eat your Heart out.

“What’s the matter? You’re usually a morning person,” Iroh raised an eyebrow.

“Work,” Zuko grumbled.

“It’s not so bad at the restaurant. Customers can be temperamental and hard to deal with, but all of our coworkers are fun people!” Iroh assured him, shuffling his nephew out of the door. Why did he have a feeling that their brand of fun would be jarring and annoying to Zuko?

It was a Monday morning. Zuko’s shift started at eleven, which wasn’t so bad, but Iroh had to be there to open, which meant he had to be there at nine am. Two hours with nothing to do. Perfect. Of course, Iroh noticed him twiddling his thumbs and knew exactly what to do.

“Here, why don’t you start by dating these containers?” Iroh suggested, handing him a roll of blue stickers. Iroh of course meant the what had to be like, at least fifty containers of freshly chopped vegetables. Zuko was still off the clock.

Of course he wasn’t happy to be tediously labeling all of these stickers. At first he considered the possibility that this would be better than nothing. This feeling very quickly faded when he had realized he had been using the wrong day stickers and he had to start almost completely all over.

It was the grill cook’s job to assemble the dishwasher, but Zuko sat there and watched, feeling lame as he muddled through conversation with the cook.

“So, you’re Iroh’s nephew, huh?” she asked, hozing off the little….whatever the curtain that went on either side was called. He supposed he would pick up the terminology in time.

“Yes,” Zuko answered.

“Are you just staying with him while you look for an apartment or is it kinda a semi-permanent situation?” She asked.

“Uhhh, look….” Zuko searched his brain.

“Suki. My name is Suki,” she seemingly read his mind.

“Suki,” Zuko breathed a sigh of relief, “it’s sort of a long story. You probably don’t want to hear about it.”

“Why not,” Suki nodded her head towards the wall clock, “we’ve got nothing but time over here.”

“Suki, drop it,” Iroh commanded in a stern yet somehow still gentle voice.

“Fine, fine,” Suki smiled, “what else should I….Oh, I’ve got it. Now let me think.”

Zuko was convinced that this girl would be able to have this conversation on her own, and that he could just wander off without her noticing. She wasn’t exactly talkative in an annoying, bubbly way though. More in just an assertive way.

“Alright. How about I give you some tips on surviving who’s on our schedule for the day?” Suki asked.

“Sure?” Zuko shrugged. Maybe that could be better than nothing.

“Okay. So it’s Monday morning. All the customers with 9-5 jobs are at work, so we only have two waitresses in today. The first is Katara. She’s not too hard to get along with. Just remember that she’s always right. Even when she’s wrong,” Suki snorted at her own joke, “then there’s Ty Lee, who….well….she’s very very sweet, but she’ll talk your ear RIGHT off. Then there’s Longshot who’s quiet like you, but you won’t be dealing with him that much, seeing as how he’s up at grill with me.”

“That’s all?” Zuko asked.

“Well, no, there’s also Toph, who’s training you,” Suki explained, “she’s fifteen, so she’s a little younger than you. She’s a little uhhhh….aggressive.”

“Aggressive?” Zuko asked.

“That’s putting it lightly,” Suki told him, finishing the dishwasher, “I’ve gotta go vacuum, talk to you later.”

* * *

 

And it _was_ putting it lightly. She entered the employee door and wasn’t shy about marching straight up to Iroh and asking him where the fresh meat was. Zuko wasn’t scared of this teenage girl with a nose ring and a short undercut who was maybe 5’0 tall, 5’1 was as far as he pushed it, and the build of a sentient noodle. No, that would be ridiculous. He was simply nervous of if she would do a good job training him or not, what with her abrasive personality and all that.

“Hey, new guy, are you ready to crush your first day?” she grinned. Zuko didn’t like the grin one little bit. There was already a stack of dishes on the steel counter for them to do. Toph insisted on doing the first couple of loads so she could show Zuko how it’s done. There were some plates already, probably left over by Toph for training.

“Alright, so with the plates, plates are simple. You put in two, side by side, and spray them down with the hose like this,” she proceeded to do just that, “then you do another row of two right in front of them on the plate rack. Then you just push it through like so.”

“That’s it?” Zuko asked. Though his own question was answered when the rack was pushed through, triggering the dishwasher to start.

“Yeah, I’ll get these to the front. You think you can handle a load while I’m gone?” Toph asked.

“Seems simple enough,” Zuko shrugged. She stalked off with the tallest stack of plates Zuko had ever seen, and Zuko started working on a stack of bowls. He assumed they were the same as plates, only more could fit on the little rack thing. So he pulled the trigger of the nozzle and-

“Hey!” he heard someone shout. He peeked through the little space between the counter and the dish racks to see a girl with dark skin, thick black hair pulled into a loose braid, and a bright blue charm hanging from a black choker. She looked mad….and soaking wet, for that matter.

“Watch where you spray that stupid thing,” she wrinkled her nose up at him.

“Sorry, I didn’t know the water would spray back like that.”

“What, is this your first time cleaning a bowl or something?” she asked.

Zuko tried not to look so embarrassed, but it kind of was his first time cleaning a bowl. Iroh cleaned mostly. Zuko made up for it by cooking. Here, the roles were reversed with Iroh cooking and Zuko cleaning.

“Ohhhkay,” she raised an eyebrow, seemingly remarking at the fact that Zuko hadn’t really responded. She walked away without a second thought. Zuko guessed that this must be Katara.

The rest of the shift was kind of boring, Toph deciding that Zuko should practice spraying while she ran the plates back and forth. She showed him how to drain the machine. Toph was a very no nonsense trainer.

It wasn’t until Zuko had clocked out for the day that it happened.  Iroh was saying it wouldn’t be long before one of the other managers got there and took over so they could go. He left Zuko to wander around the kitchen sipping his sad little paper cup of soda while the line fill guy got ready to tenderize meat and one of the waitresses clocked out so three more could clock in. Zuko just wandered around, trying not to make eye contact with Katara, when suddenly a large meat tenderizing mallet connected with the side of his head.


	2. On the second day of training my lover gave to me, an overdue chapter and a author who is sorry

Zuko opened his eyes to see who had sent him launching into the ground.

“Holy shit!” the offender said, holding his mallet in what seemed like shame. Suki, Toph, and some other girls he hadn’t met yet stood above him in concern. 

“Holy shit?” Zuko glared.

“Uh. Sorry,” he reached his hand down to help Zuko up. He had his undercut pulled into a bun. The man had raven black eyes and would be really easy on the eyes if he hadn’t just hit Zuko with a meat tenderizer. 

“Watch where you throw that thing, yeah?” Zuko took his hand away from the line filler and got up on his own.

“OOOOOH,” Toph said.

“I mean, to be fair, in  a restaurant, you’re supposed to say ‘behind’.” he pointed out. 

“I’ve only worked here for a day. How was I supposed to know?” Zuko folded his arms.

The other guy just kind of shrugged.

“Sorry, man,” and then he just sort of walked away.

What a jerk! Zuko thought. Who finds a way to twist an apology to make it seem like one is not owed said apology. 

Zuko huffed and skulked to Iroh’s car. 

* * *

 

 

“You could have been a little nicer,” Suki half scolded as Sokka leaned on the counter that stood before the grill. 

“What do you want me to do, Suki?” Sokka raised an eyebrow, “he didn’t say behind. It’s not like I hit him on purpose. Though if I knew how rude he was gonna be about it, I might have given him a reason to be mad.”

“Sokka, you hit him with a mallet. He’s allowed to be a little rude about accepting the apology,” Suki pointed out.

“Sure, side with the new guy. You ALWAYS side with the new guy,” Sokka complained, “not like I’m your best friend or anything.”

“Exactly. Not like that at all,” Suki smirked.

“Hey!” Sokka protested.

“Oh, you know I’m just teasing,” Suki rested her arms on the counter.

“Sure,” Sokka turned around and crossed his arms dramatically.

“Sokka, come on,” Suki smiled.

“Nope. I’m friendless. Doomed to only interact with customers and the managers till the end of my days. So it is written. So it shall be,” Sokka huffed.

“Oh, please, Sokka, could you ever forgive me?” Sukki tugged on his arm.

“Not. A, Chance,” Sokka stood firm.

“Not even if I told you you were the nicest, coolest, handsomest guy working in the restaurant?” Suki rolled her eyes.

“I’m starting to come around,” Sokka turned around to face her again.

“You guys are so weird,” Toph declared, making a face.

“We know,” Suki said. She turned back to face Sokka, “look. I’m not saying you need to be the guy’s best friend. But could you at least be civil to him?” Suki asked.

“He works mornings, I work nights,” Sokka shrugged, “it’s out of my hands.”

“Sokka,” She pinched his arm,

“Ow! The hell was that for?” Sokka rubbed the spot she had pinched.

“You work nights and weekends. Sooner or later, the two of you are going to have a shift together. And I’d rather not have all hell break loose when that happens,” Suki paused the conversation to greet a customer and take his bowl. When his food finished cooking, Sokka protested.

“But I-”

“Sokka. Your sister already hates the guy. He’s taking enough heat as is,” Suki pointed out.   
“Then I stand in solidarity with Katara,” Sokka said.

Suki gave him a resigned look.

“FINE,” Sokka huffed, “fine. I will be nice to him.”

“Good,” Suki grinned, “now you have a job to do, and so do I.”

“I do not have a job to do. It’s empty in here,” Sokka pointed out, gesturing towards the empty restaurant.

“Well, you have a job to pretend to do. Otherwise Anna will catch you and force you to do side work.” Suki continued.

“Yikes, you have a point,” Sokka said.

“I usually do,” Suki shrugged. 

So Sokka busied himself with straightening out a buffet line that didn’t much need to be straightened out to begin with. 

One of the things he hated about this job was that it was only somewhat related to what he actually wanted to do. And what he actually wanted to do was be a chef. A real chef at a real restaurant. His restaurant. And though he loved the people here, there’s so much that he didn’t like about the job. 

The fact that he had no idea what things smelled like because the various sauces set up permanent camp in his nostrils.

The fact that he now had to use extra body wash so he didn’t smell like rotting seafood (the smell had seeped into his skin, he SWORE).

The fact that all they ever played around here was classic rock. It was offensive to his ear drums. 

“What are you doing?” Katara asked.

“What do you mean?” Sokka retorted.

“I mean that it looks like you’re just standing around, wandering through the restaurant, moving tongs back and forth, and drinking soda,” Katara folded her arms.

“It is called trying to look busy,” Sokka rolled his eyes and picked a lone meatball out of the onions.

“Well, it’s not working, so you can help me with my side work,” Katara instructed. 

“And why would I do that?” Sokka asked.

“Because you’re a good big brother,” Katara smiled.

“We both know that’s not true,” Sokka pointed out. 

“I’ll bring food to your apartment tomorrow,” Katara offered.

“What kind of food?” Sokka asked, intrigued.

“Wings.”

“Deal,” Sokka agreed. He walked over to Katara’s station and started helping her refill soy sauces.

* * *

 

 

Day two of training was a little bit different. Zuko would load the dishwasher and carry the dishes out, and Toph watched, sipping from her water bottle, continuously ranting about her time as a line filler. Evidently customers were just rude to her. She had to smell the ingredients one by one and develop a sense of which ingredient was located where. She didn’t have much trouble avoiding bumping into people though, as she could see vague shapes and outlines.

Zuko tuned out for most of her rant. Occasionally he would roll his eyes at her, hoping she would eventually offer a little help. She did not.

Eventually, Zuko managed to clear his station by himself, and seeing as how the restaurant was mostly empty, he stood by the soda machine until someone brought him a cup or something. He could smell the food being cooked outside, and found himself a little disgusted. Who would want stir fry at eleven thirty in the morning? His stomach churned just thinking about it.

“Hey, stranger,” Suki greeted him, taking a cup down from the large stack.

“Oh, hi Suki,” Zuko leaned against the counter.

“What’s up?” she asked, filling her cup.

“Just waiting for something to do, I guess,” Zuko shrugged.

“Ugh, me too,” Suki rolled her eyes, “I am so bored.”

“Right,” Zuko had a lot of trouble making conversation.

“So,” Suki starts, “you have any plans for the weekend?”

“Nothing but sitting at home watching Iroh play solitaire,” Zuko admitted, a little sheepish.

“Do you work next Friday night?” Suki asked.

“No. I only work mornings as per Iroh.”

“Do you want something to do next Friday night?”

“Uhhh,” Zuko shrugged.

“Listen. I’m throwing a party. I don’t know who all is coming, but I know at least Ty Lee and a couple of my friends from school are gonna be there,” Suki explained.

“School?” Zuko was a little confused.

“Univ. From the after school lesbian group,” Suki explained.

“Lesbian group? They have those?” Zuko was all sorts of confused now.

“You haven’t heard of those?”

“I uhhh,” Zuko paused to debate whether he was going to share the details of his sheltered life. For a long time, all there was was school, a very very Catholic school, and home. That was his life. “I guess not. It’s cool they have those, though.”

Suki clicked her tongue.

“Anyway, the party?” She asked.

“Right, uh, what time does it start?” Zuko glanced at the clock.

“7:30. You don’t have to bring anything, just show up. Casual attire, okay? Here’s my address,” Suki wrote it down on a scrap piece of paper and shoved it into Zuko’s hands.

“Listen, Suki, you’re like. Really nice, but I don’t think that I can make it. It’s just that Iroh needs me around the house for a lot of stuff and-”

“He’ll be there,” Iroh placed a firm hand on Zuko’s shoulder.

“Iroh!” Zuko protested. 

“Cool. See you there,” Suki smiled and walked back to the grill with her drink. 

“It will be a good opportunity for you to socialize and make friends. You should not be as tense as you are here,” Iroh reasoned.

“I already have a friend! Suki!” Zuko pointed out, “And besides, I’ve never known you to force me into things that make me uncomfortable.”

“Just this once,” Iroh winked. 

Zuko groaned.

* * *

 

 

Sokka heard a knock on his door that afternoon. He opened it to reveal his sister and Suki, holding several large styrofoam boxes.

“I heard there were wings, so I invited myself,” Suki grinned.

“Not a problem, just stay away from the honey barbeque,” Sokka commanded.

“God, Sokka, your apartment is thrashed,” Katara proclaimed. Sokka hated to admit that Katara was right, but she was definitely right. There was a stack of laundry that Sokka had named laundry mountain that he’d been avoiding for weeks.

“Do I thrash your place? No? Then what’s the problem with my slobbery?” Sokka asked, rhetorically.

“The problem with that is that you  _ do _ come over and thrash our places,” Suki pointed out, grabbing a garlic parm chicken wing.

“Uh huh, and speaking of that, what do you want me to make for your party?” Sokka asked.

“You don’t have to make anything, Sokka,” Suki responded.

“Bullshit. Seven layer bean dip and homemade pizza,” Sokka declared, writing the idea down on what he called his chef pad, a memo pad with a little cartoon Italian chef serving something on a silver platter and saying “bon appétit!”

“You couldn’t stop him if you wanted to,” Katara sighed, “he’s already on a roll.”

“Rolls!” Sokka exclaimed.

“Who knew that having a best friend that wants to be a chef would be so tiring?” Suki teased.

“Ungrateful,” Sokka pouted, walking over to the small television set and flipping it on, “anyway, what do you guys want to watch?”

“There’s a documentary on the puppeteer behind Elmo that I have been trying to sit down and watch for months,” Suki suggested.

“Sounds mesmerizing,” Sokka said seriously. Katara rolled her eyes and grabbed some fries. This had better be good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait lads! I've been working a lot on my comic, and work doesn't leave like a ton of free time. But I'm trying to get the amount of time between chapters down to like a week or so!  
> Find me on tumblr @fleetwoodmurk or find me on twitter @RigbyCooper


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